Need a BIOS modder (legit Help needed)

[Dryvlyne]

Ok, to try and make a long story short I flashed a corrupt BIOS file to my brand new Asus A8N-E motherboard last night. I flashed BIOS version 1011 (official from Asus's web site) and would like to revert back to the BIOS that shipped with the motherboard which is version 1010.

Fortunately this motherboard comes with a built-in fail safe that lets you hit ALT+F2 during the POST process to get into a flashing utility (they call it Asus CrashFree) so that you can try and flash another BIOS. I can get into this utility, but the problem is that when upgrading to BIOS 1011 it also upgraded the Award Flash utility to v1.16 which apparently DOES NOT allow BIOS downgrading. So while Asus has this really nice fail safe feature they have essentially nullified it with their latest BIOS!

Anyway, I am praying that someone out there knows how to mod BIOS's and can simply take the 1010 BIOS and modify the time/date stamp (or whatever it is) of the file so that I can hopefully trick the motherboard into thinking that it is "newer" than the 1011 BIOS.

Please respond if you might be able to help!

 

[mainegeek]

Dryvlyne,
Why not download a fresh copy of the 1011 bios bin file and use the v1.16 utility instead of trying to figure out how to downgrade it with the previous v1.14? In other words,try flashing it again.

 

[Dryvlyne]

Yeah, I did try re-flashing it several times with the latest BIOS and I get the same results. Obviously my motherboard really does not like the latest BIOS at all :-(

 

[mainegeek]

What results are you getting after the flash?

 

[Dryvlyne]

It goes to the POST screen and a message appears that says "CMOS Checksum Error: Default Settings Loaded". I then can press F1 to continue or DEL to enter the BIOS settings.

Pressing F1 simply takes me to another screen where it says Phoenix AwardBIOS at the top with a white bordered area of nothingness.

Pressing DEL does get me into the BIOS settings, but I can only see an outline of the areas where the settings should be display; I can't actually see any of the settings.

Asus does sell replacement BIOS chips on their web site, but I don't want to order one unless I have to because obviously I would have to wait for it to arrive via mail. God, I'm so pissed... why in the world would the come out with a BIOS that negates their own fail safe utility, morons! :-(

 

[mainegeek]

Press DEL to enter the setup then press F10 and save and exit.

 

[Dryvlyne]

I tried that, but it doesn't do anything. In fact, once I get into the BIOS settings I can't do anything, I have to manually restart or power off.

 

[mainegeek]

Have you tried manually clearing the cmos by moving the clear cmos jumper on the motherboard?

 

[BadBigBen]

Question:

can you access the Floppy drive? if yes, then I would try DL the following Asus Flasher,

http://www.unicore.com/techsupport/utils/Aflash.exe,

and flash version 1010 with it...

if not, try Clearing the CMOS first, it may just have gotten hickupped... and if that does not work, I guess the last thing you can do is to break down and get a BIOS replacement...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Dryvlyne]

Well thanks everyone for your help, but I went ahead and ordered a BIOS replacement chip and am having it overnighted to me.

I did clear the CMOS and removed the battery to no avail. Also, I could not boot from the floppy. The CrashFree BIOS utility would read files from a floppy, but it would automatically look for a .BIN file; if it didn't find one then no dice.

I told the tech support guy at Asus that they really need to address this issue with the CrashFree utility. I mean really, what the hell good is that utility gonna do anyone if it is completely negated by a BIOS update that will no longer let you downgrade the BIOS... arggghhh!!

Anyway, hopefully all of this will be resolved by tomorrow evening. I can definitely say that I have learned my lesson here though and will never again just flash a BIOS just to flash it and have the latest version :-(.

Thanks

 

[BadBigBen]

Dryvlyne - you know what they say...

Never Touch a Running System...

I for one, only update the BIOS if there are issues with the CPU recognition or HD problems, and only if they are adressed in the UPDATE...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Dryvlyne]

Holy cr@p guys, I got back into my system !

I was on my wife's lappy tonight and read a guy's post in some obscure forum who said something about a new BIOS's he tried flashing had problems with memory being in a dual-channel configuration. He said all he did was remove a stick of RAM so it was in single channel and that did the trick for him.

Well, you guessed it, that worked for me too! It let me boot right into Windows without any problems as soon as I removed a stick of RAM. I then used the Asus Update utility and was able to flash back one BIOS revision, stuck my other stick of RAM back in and everything is running smoothly again!

I can't believe that's all it was this whole time! I am definitely happy that it is working again, but now I'm out $40 because I paid for a new BIOS chip and overnight shipping. I think they will take the chip back and give me a refund, but I believe I'll still be out $20 for the shipping cost. Oh well, at least losing $20 is better than losing $40 and besides this is a lesson I'll soon not forget - NEVER flash the BIOS unless there is an abosolutely compelling reason to do so .

Peace

 

[mainegeek]

Dryvlyne,
Thank you for the useful tip. Glad to hear you got it sorted out.

 

[BadBigBen]

Dito to what mainegeek said... glad you got it purring again...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."